Italian consumer prices continued to decline in July

According to the report from Istat, in July 2020 the rate of change of Italian consumer price index for the whole nation (NIC) was -0.2% on monthly basis and -0.4% with respect to July 2019 (from -0.2% in June); the flash estimate was -0.3%.

The third consecutive month of decrease on annual basis of All items index was mainly due to the confirmation of the drop (even if less large) of prices of both Regulated (from -14.1% in June to -13.6%) and Non-regulated energy products (from -11.2% to -9.0%) and the widening of the decrease to the slowdown of prices of Processed food including alcohol (from + 1.2% to + 0.6%) and of Unprocessed food (from +4.1% to +2.5%) and to prices of Services related to transport (from -0.1% to -0.9%).

Core inflation (excluding energy and unprocessed food) was +0.4% (down from +0.7% in the previous month) and inflation excluding energy was +0.6% (down from +0.9% in the previous month).

Prices of Grocery and unprocessed food decreased by 1.1% on monthly basis and increased by 1.2% on annual basis (down from +2.1% in the previous month).

In July 2020 the rate of change of the Italian harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) was -0.7% with respect to the previous month and +0.8% on annual basis (reversing the trend from -0.4% in June).